Harry Potter may have been made famous through the books of J K Rowling, but Tiptree has its very own claim to the name.

Eight-year-old Harry Potter lives in Tiptree with his mum Melanie, dad Mark and brother Thomas, five. Although a fan of the books, he says he is not like his namesake.

In his spare time, the Tiptree Heath County Primary School pupil plays football for the Ipswich under-nines.

He said: "I like the name. I think it's a good name. My school friends like it too. They think it's funny. Sometimes people don't believe it's my real name, but I tell them it is."

He added: "I'm reading the first book at the moment. It's really good and I'm going to see the film when it comes out, but we aren't really like each other."

Mrs Potter said the name had belonged to her late grandfather.

She added: "At school everyone's used to his name so it's really only just clicked.

"When we first saw the books we thought it was quite funny, and then other people started realising. All of the family find it very amusing," Mrs Potter said.

This one's not a wizard - Tiptree's Harry Potter

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.